Pajama Pundits

There are as many different views on the nomination as there are ways to make 'authentic' spaghetti sauce, and, rather naturally, everyone immediately sets out to find out... what's the catch?

Leaving David Souter out of this, at least a few people seem to think Roberts was picked in some sort of a hurry.

I don't believe that for a moment.
It's no secret that Rhenquist is ailing, and O'Connor has been talking at least a little about retirement since the end of the Clinton administration. (anyone remember the flap over 'oh, that's terrible'?)

No, for whatever reasons he was picked, Roberts was not a name pulled out of a hat on the double-quick, so George could move on to more important matters*. It wasn't, quite, inevitable that he (Bush) would get to put at least one person on the big bench, but it wasn't that far from fated.

To that end, profiles of quite a few people have been being sorted, winnowed, screened, combed and otherwise given the many-times-over, against exactly such a contingency, arguably since the inauguration in 2001. I won't speculate on how long the 'short list' was when O'Connor announced she'd had enough, but it would take a lot of effort to convince me there was much real wading to be done.

Everyone who comments on Roberts generally agrees that he's one of the brightest legal minds on the scene. Of the information I myself have seen, very few of the people who know him personally will comment on what political ideals shape his rulings, and of those who do, there seems to be agreement that, well,,, there aren't any.

While admitting that it can come back to haunt one, (I know we're leaving Souter out of this, but one shouldn't forget him entirely) the fact that his friends tend to decline comment on his politics is comforting, on several levels. I would hate to ever be under the sort of media microscope that is currently focusing on Roberts, but if it did happen, I should like to think that my own friends would be just as reluctant to tell the press things that are none of the press' business. To me, it's a point in Roberts' favor that his friends, are.

So 'we' are left with a guy who has been working with the SC, on one side of the bench or another, for 10 years, and has been a Circuit court justice for two more. He is bright, he's talented, he's quiet, he seems to keep his personal convictions out of his legal procedures, and he has experience.

They're going to have to pick on him for his hairdo.

*